Ban all fox pens in Virginia

In Virginia, foxes are being trapped in the wild and then sold for use as live bait in pens for dog competitions. The Virginia Game and Inland Fisheries Department (804) 367-1000)currently issues permits to allow this statewide. Email the Governor address below to urge them to ban fox pens. (Please call and email only if you're a Virginia resident.) .Although these fox pens may be several hundred acres in size, they are densely stocked with foxes, ensuring that the dogs will easily be able to find their prey. During each competition, hundreds of dogs may be set upon foxes who have nowhere to run or hide. The result is that many of these helpless animals are run down and killed by the dogs. The dogs kill so many foxes that the pen owners constantly need to buy more animals from wildlife traffickers, who practice a brutal trade. Wildlife traffickers first trap the animals and then truck them for miles, sometimes illegally across state lines, before depositing the terrified animals in unfamiliar enclosures. These facilities have consistently violated regulations and have demonstrated that no level of regulation and enforcement is a deterrent for illegal activity. (Thank you HSUS for this information.)

Letter to

Governor of VirginiaGovernor Bob McDonnell

Ban all fox pens in Virginia.Fox penning is a cruel practice where packs of dogsare released in fenced enclosures to chase downfoxes. Often the captive foxes are pursued to exhaustion,caught and then killed by dogs in these"fox pens." More than 6,000 of Virginia’s foxes weretaken from the wild and thrown into fox pens inthe last five years, just so judges could score howruthlessly the dogs pursue the fenced foxes. There'sno excuse for a fenced game where foxes have torun for their lives. Please ban all fox pens in Virginia.